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New Study Shows Which Keywords on YouTube Get the Most Video Views

A study of popular YouTube videos in 2019 reveals which keywords are associated with the most views.

Pew Research Center published an analysis of every video on YouTube created by high-subscriber channels in the first week of 2019.

For the purpose of this study, a high-subscriber channel is defined as one with at least 250,000 subscribers. There are at least 43,770 channels with that many subscribers.

Analysis of the study is broken down into three parts, but I will only be going over the third part as it’s the one most closely related to SEO.

The third part of the report focuses on keywords in video titles and descriptions that were associated with more views.

YouTube Keywords With the Most Views

Pew Research Center narrowed down a list of 20 keywords in YouTube video titles that are associated with the largest increase in median views.

Here are the top 20 keywords in order:

  1. Fortnite
  2. ASMR
  3. Slime
  4. Rainbow
  5. Prank
  6. Worst
  7. NFL
  8. Makeup
  9. Moment
  10. Wrong
  11. Eating
  12. PubG
  13. NBA
  14. Ultimate
  15. Hack
  16. FIFA
  17. Player
  18. Mystery
  19. Insane
  20. Roblox

In particular, the keyword “Fortnite” was associated with the largest increase in views out of all of the words examined in the study. It was also the most common of the top 20 most-viewed words.

In examining keywords used in YouTube video titles and descriptions, the study discovered another common practice amongst high-subscriber channels.

Seven-in-ten videos cross-linked to other social media platforms. The most commonly referenced social platforms were Twitter (58% of all videos), Facebook (51%), Instagram (50%), and Snapchat (9%).

Based on that data, the study concludes that mentioning other social media platforms is associated with higher view counts overall.

For more data, see the full study here.

Category News YouTube
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SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, ...

New Study Shows Which Keywords on YouTube Get the Most Video Views

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